Afternoon summary

Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, has been accused of legitimising climate change denial. He was criticised by Labour and the Lib Dems after he released a statement implying that scepticism about climate change being driven by man-made carbon emissions might be justified. Subsequently he said that he “respects” the scientific consensus on climate change. But his office was unable to confirm that he agreed with it. (See 4.07pm.)

The SNP has said the Westminster government should not be allowed to stop Edinburgh calling a second independence referendum. Under the current law Westminster would have to approve such a referendum, and David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister, confirmed today that the UK government would not allow this. (See 2.50pm.) In response, Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster,cited recent polling showing that 66% of Scots think the Scottish parliament should have the final say on whether there should be another independence referendum. He went on:

Scotland’s future cannot and will not be decided by the arrogant diktat of this shambles of a Tory government which has been rejected by Scottish voters at every election and which is soon likely to be out of office.

Whatever people’s views on independence, a strong majority of people back the Scottish parliament’s right to determine the nation’s future.

Overwhelmingly, it is Holyrood – not Westminster – which the people of Scotland believe should have the right to decide this country’s democratic path.

Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, has sought to quash suggestions that voting remain in 2016 would make him ineligible to be next party leader. Speaking at a press gallery lunch, and asked if the next Tory leader would have to be someone who voted leave, Hunt replied:

It has got to be somebody who believes in Brexit because that’s the fundamental mission of the government at the moment.

You have to be someone who believes - as I do and, to be honest, I think all the people who are touted as leadership contenders do - that Britain can make an extraordinary success of our post-EU future.

Sinn Fein has said the European elections in Northern Ireland will be a referendum on Brexit.Michelle O’Neill, the party’s vice president, said:

This election will be very much be about the remain vs leave vote, this will very much be an election once again for people to register that they do not want to be dragged out of the EU, that there is no good to come from Brexit, and they do not want Brexit foisted upon us.

Northern Ireland has three seats in the European parliament and in the past they have been divided between Sinn Fein, which opposes Brexit, the DUP, which supports Brexit, and the Ulster Unionists, who opposed Brexit in 2016 but who accept the result of the referendum.

Turning back to Scotland and the SNP’s decision to push for another referendum on independence if the UK does leave the EU, John Swinney, the deputy first minister, has insisted that statements from the UK government saying it will not allow such a poll (yesterday, and again today) are not the end of the matter. Speaking at the Scottish Council of Development and Industry (SCDI) annual forum in Edinburgh, he said:

I don’t currently think the UK government looks particularly stable, if I may put it as delicately as that.

I think there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge about these questions, we’ve a lot of discussions to undertake with the UK government and others on these questions but I don’t think that should be viewed as the last word on the subject.

This matters. The International Commission of Labour’s National Policy Forum - which consists of MPs, trade unionists, MEPs, and constituency representatives - has just voted UNANIMOUSLY that Labour’s manifesto for EU elections should pledge to hold a confirmatory referendum...

on any Brexit deal. My sources say there were no dissenting voices. And yesterday all Labour MEPs voted in precisely the same unanimous way, for a referendum. Tomorrow Labour’s Trade Union Liaison Organisation is likely to inform the party’s ruling NEC that its big...

union supporters - including Unison, the GMB and USDAW, but obviously NOT Unite - also want a referendum. So it is increasingly hard to see how Labour’s ruling NEC can next Tuesday, at its emergency meeting ignore such widespread membership pressure and do anything but adopt...

a confirmatory referendum as the foundation of its manifesto. That said many senior Labour figures tell me they worry Seumas Milne and @jeremycorbyn will somehow find a way to prevent the party adopting an unambiguous pledge to campaign for a referendum. As one senior Labour...

Whether or not individuals accept the current scientific consensus on the causes of climate change, it is sensible for everyone to use finite resources in a responsible way.

We in the United Kingdom were the first country to establish legally binding emission targets through the climate change act 2008, we have reduced emissions faster than any other G7 country and we are leaders in clean energy production.

There is an estimated $11.5tr dollars that is likely to be invested in clean energy between now and 2050 globally, that represents an enormous opportunity for the United Kingdom, which is already as I’ve said a global leader, both by practice and by export, and could mean a lot of potential jobs for the United Kingdom.

This immediately provoked criticism because the second sentence in the statement implies that scepticism about climate change being driven by man-made carbon emissions is justified.

Barry Gardiner, Fox’s Labour shadow, said:

The science is clear. It is shameful that in the week when a sixteen year old school child has educated MPs with such clarity about the climate emergency we face, we have a cabinet minister showing confusion and ignorance on such a staggering scale.

And Wera Hobhouse, the Lib Dem climate change spokesperson, said:

The Conservative government are finally showing their true colours, as apologists for climate change denial. While their ranks have many who reject the scientific evidence that humans are contributing to climate change, the government had least accepted what was happening, but now it seems they’ve changed their mind.

Fox has now put out a statement saying he fully “respects” the scientific consensus on climate change. But it does not say he “accepts” the consensus, or agrees with it.

Dr Liam Fox MP (@LiamFox)

I have always taken environmental issues extremely seriously. The state of our planet should concern us all. There is a clear scientific consensus on climate change, which I fully respect. Even those who don’t accept it should want to see our finite resources carefully managed.

I called his press office a moment ago to ask for clarification, and was told “his words speak for themselves”. When I pointed out that, actually, they don’t, because he has not said specifically that he agrees with the climate change consensus, the press officer was unable to elaborate and just repeated the language used by Fox himself.

So what does Fox actually think about the causes of climate change? Who knows? As a doctor, you would expect him to accept the science. But this is a reminder that Fox (who has good Washington contacts) is one of the relatively few Conservative MPs who would feel culturally at home in the US Republican party, where it is normal to find dismiss climate change as a myth.